26/03/2004 –
Exactly 10 years ago today, I accepted an invitation to register on LinkedIn. That
was the start of an amazing journey that would change my life forever. I could
never have imagined that these 10 years would become such a rollercoaster of
events, transforming myself from “someone who really hated attending networking
events” to a professional and international networker. The first years of my
transformation were written down in my first book “A Girlfriend in Every City”,
published in November 2005 (Panoma Publishers UK).
During this
decade I have met many amazing people from all around the world. By attending
networking events in London, Copenhagen, Brussels and many other cities, I had
the chance to meet many top-class networkers who inspired me. Some of them
became close friends, most of them are just a phone call away.
When I
joined LinkedIn, it was not much more than a large collection of resumes. In
the next years it became the largest and most important professional online
network. I have joined many other networks since, but LinkedIn is also for me
the most important professional network. In general this is a network where you
only connect with people you have met in person. I believe in proactive
networking, so I also accept invites of people I haven’t met. I try to meet as
many of them as possible on the next networking events I attend. In the past 10
years I have connected with 10.374 people on LinkedIn, connecting me to a
network of almost 25 million professionals. I always try to meet up with at
least 75% of my direct contacts. Meeting up in person leverages the quality of
the relationship.
My
networking adventures have inspired me to keep on spreading the message to
small business owners around the world. With my books, presentations and
workshops I try to help them make better use of social media for their
business. Lots of people have inspired and encouraged me to do this. A very big
“thank you” to a few people in special : Hendrik Deckers, Thomas Power, PennyPower OBE and Louis Gray. Without them I wouldn’t be doing this today.
I’m really
looking forward to the next 10 years. Please join me for another amazing ride !
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